Manufacturers descend on Eastec industrial trade show in West Springfield

Photo by Dave Roback / The RepublicanThomas A. LeMay, of Citizen Machinery America in Agawam, demonstrates a piece of equipment Tuesday for Al W. Beaulieu, left, and Greg A. Boucher, right, of Horst Engineering and Manufacturing of East Hartford, Conn., at the Eastec trade show at the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield.

WEST SPRINGFIELD - A poor economy has slowed but hasn't stopped business at Eastec Advanced Productivity Exposition, the largest industrial tool trade show on the East Coast.

"The majority of the people I've talked to have said they are doing OK," said James H. Cepican, general manager for the Tooling and Accessories Division of Citizen Machinery America in Agawam. "But maybe it's a case of you're only here if you are busy."

Eastec opened Tuesday morning and will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday at the Eastern States Exhibition in West Springfield.

Eastec fills 160,000 square feet of exhibition space, said Kimberly L. Farrugia, a senior show manager for the Society of Professional Engineers who runs Eastec. She said there are 570 exhibitors and 15,000 potential visitors preregistered for the event.

"So far, on opening day it looks very busy," she said.

There were 608 companies selling machines at the show in 2008 and 650 exhibitors at the show in 2007. The event drew 14,000 visitors in 2008.

Admission is $50 or free to Society of Manufacturing Engineers members and exhibitors.

Ellen Bemben, president of the Regional Technology Corp., said Eastec is healthy compared with other manufacturing shows that have seen their number of exhibitors fall by 20 percent or more.

"They've gotten hammered, absolutely hammered," she said.

It's not hard to figure out why, with consumer spending down, the automobile industry in disarray and capital for new enterprises hard to obtain.

The U.S. Census Bureau has reported that new orders for manufactured goods fell in March - down seven of the last eight months - by $3.2 billion, or 0.9 percent, to $345.3 billion.

"Our first quarter was down, but our April was better," Cepican said. "I think we are starting to see things turn around."

Citizen Machinery America, a unit of the Citizen Watch Co., makes and sells computer-controlled lathes and machine tools that shape bars of raw metal into parts for the aerospace, medical implant, automotive and other industries.

For instance, a bone screw used to repair damage to the human body might be thinner than a pencil lead, but machined to tolerances many times smaller than a human hair. One machine carved a tiny metal bell as a demonstration of its prowess. Nearby, another machine made a rifle bolt.

Bemben said local manufacturers are looking to diversify and move from old-line industries like auto parts to emerging technologies like medical devices and energy efficient and green-energy products. For example, wind turbine power generators have gearboxes, she said.

She said the Pioneer Valley has 50 to 60 small machine shops with a total of about 2,000 employees. That doesn't count larger companies represented at the show, such as Smith & Wesson.

Karl Wittenzellner runs Progress Machining Co. in Enfield, by himself. He said his business is starting to pick up. His most recent project is designing and making parts for the conveyor belts in a bottle-recycling plant.

"I hadn't been to Eastec in several years, and I always like to come and see the new technology," he said. "Here, you can see it all in one place."